MIKE THOMAS OPINION Out with the old?


With legislation on same-sex marriage coming into force in England and Wales, have civil partnerships now had their day? By Dr Mike Thomas


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ESBIAN AND GAY couples’ attitudes towards civil partnerships were investigated as part of a comparative study involving the UK, the USA and Canada.


According to my research, civil partner couples in the UK welcomed the package of clearly defined legal rights, including next of kin rights and inheritance rights. Couples with children said that civil partnership provided a context for them to be recognised as a family unit by offering a legal status that others could relate to and understand. Research participants also reported that civil partnership made them feel more included and assertive in a range of public and commercial service contexts, for example in health and social care settings. Civil partnerships have had an important


impact on family and community life in the UK. In particular, civil partnership ceremonies have provided opportunities for family members as well as friends, neighbours and work colleagues to acknowledge gay and lesbian relationships. For same-sex couples this was often a source of great satisfaction, affirming and cementing even long-standing relationships within their social networks.


Negotiating the differences between marriage and civil partnerships has been one of the most difficult aspects of this new form of recognition. A minority of civil partners who took part in the research wanted to maintain clear boundaries between their new legal status and heterosexual marriage. But these distinctions were eroded from the outset, with civil partnership ceremonies routinely referred to as ‘gay weddings’ in the media and by couples themselves.


“ Civil partnerships have had


an important impact on family and community life in the UK


Some couples were more open to interpreting civil partnerships as being broadly equivalent to marriage, often because they felt that civil partnership was unfamiliar, sounded bureaucratic and lacked the social status and cultural meanings that went with marriage. In the early days, some couples even had to explain to family members, hoteliers and caterers what a civil partnership was. With same-sex marriage due to be implemented in England and Wales from March 2014 and the UK government consulting on whether to extend civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples or abolish them altogether, it is worth considering whether, less than ten years on, civil partnerships have had their day. The move to same-sex marriage in England


and Wales, with Scotland due to follow suit, may be seen as evidence that civil partnerships were an inadequate substitute for marriage, and failed to achieve parity of esteem with marriage or to stem demands for fuller equality. At the same time, it would be misleading to overlook the contribution of civil partnerships towards both the greater visibility of same-sex couples in UK society and the continuing erosion of negative social attitudes towards homosexuality.


As the first UK same-sex couples prepare to


For others, ceremonies were more bittersweet, bringing difficult family relationships to a head and reminding same-sex couples that despite their new legal status, they could not expect to be treated as equals within their families. Civil partners were sometimes wary of pushing the boundaries of acceptance, with some for example making a clear decision not to kiss at the end of their ceremony for fear of causing offence.


marry, we should perhaps raise a glass to civil partnerships as a pragmatic stepping-stone, without which equal marriage in 2014 would have been politically impossible. n


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Contact Dr Mike Thomas, University of Kent Email m.j.thomas@kent.ac.uk Telephone 01634 888927 Web www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/staff/academic/thomas-mike.html


SPRING 2014 SOCIETY NOW 15 ”


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